SHIPBUILDING: Huntington-Ingalls Sinks $2B Into Shipyards: Digital Plans & Computerized Welding.

The Navy’s new acquisition chief, James “Hondo” Geurts, was impressed by HII’s high tech tools during a visit to the company’s giant Newport News yard in Virginia. Newport News builds all nuclear-powered carriers and half of the Navy’s nuclear submarines. New England’s Electric Boat, owned by General Dynamics, builds the other half of each sub; the two yards ships components back and forth on huge barges.

Huntington-Ingalls’ other major yard, its namesake facility in Ingalls, Miss., builds conventionally-powered destroyers and amphibious warships — competing with General Dynamics’ Bath Iron Works in Maine and NASSCO in San Diego — as well as the Coast Guard National Security Cutter, a version of which HII’s proposed as the future Navy frigate.

While HII wouldn’t give precise figures, about $850 million of investment is going into Newport News and $950 million into Ingalls.

This is a great sign, because we were never going to get to a 355-ship Navy with our current infrastructure.